Boost for HIV/AIDS programme

OFFSETS US CUTS

- THEOLIN TEMBO

FINANCE Minister, Enoch Godongwana, has announced that not only will R26 billion be allocated to provinces to bolster HIV/AIDS programme, but R410 million will be reprioritised from the Department of Health over the medium term to offset research grant funding that was withdrawn by the US.

The news came yesterday, when Godongwana delivered the 2026 Budget Speech.

Previously, several HIV/AIDS programmes and research had been affected when the US announced it was withdrawing the US President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) funding. This dominated headlines last year.

Pepfar-funded HIV organisations receiving grants from the US Agency for International Development, USAID, were notified in February 2025 that their grants had been terminated.

Since Pepfar’s inception in 2003, the US government invested over $100bn in the global HIV/AIDS response, saving over 25m lives, preventing millions of HIV infections, and supporting several countries to achieve HIV epidemic control, all while significantly strengthening global health and economic security.